Sunday, November 27, 2011

After being off limits for nine months, Cathedral Square was finally re-opened on Saturday November 26th to pedestrians. Thousands took advantage of the fine weather to visit the City's devastated heart.

While the plinth that once supported the statue of Canterbury's 'founder' John Robert Godley remains empty since its toppling in the February earthquake, Neil Dawson's chalice sculpture appears unaffected. In the background, the soon to be demolished BNZ building.

Once the first structure in the Square to surpass the height of the Cathedral spire, the BNZ tower now awaits the wrecking ball.

Originally the Chief Post Office, the former Starbucks and Visitor Information Centre remains off limits. Hopefully it can be saved from demolition.

Once home to the Ministry of Works and Development, Christchurch architect J. C. Maddison's elegant Government Building was saved from threatened demolition over twenty years ago. After undergoing extensive renovation it became the Heritage Hotel. The substantial strengthening carried out at the time appears to have paid off, as the hotel is scheduled to re-open in 2012.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Some say the nationwide turnout was at an historical low, others claim that once special votes are accounted for it wasn't that bad. Anyway, the weather was great.

The cheerily vapid faces of citizen participation, or the severed heads of democracy?

Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee makes inroads into Labour-held territory in the recently reopened City Mall. At the close of voting the seat of Christchurch Central was tied, to be decided on special votes.

Back in June Prime Minister John Key declared that no-one would be worse off as a result of the Canterbury earthquakes. When pressed recently on the campaign trail to explain the groundswell of discontent among those affected, he offered that there had to be winners and losers. On Saturday November 19, earthquake-affected Cantabrians took to the streets in unprecedented numbers to voice their discontent with the Government and CERA, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.

The Show Your Colour Crusade.

Despite the name and trappings, not a religious revival but a gathering at Cranmer Square of over 400 aggrieved residents of Canterbury's colour-coded quake-damaged zones.

Numbers are swelled by a contingent from the Occupy Christchurch camp at Hagley Park.

Evan Smith addresses the rally.

Christchurch Central MP Brendon Burns stresses the urgent need for transparency and clear communication from the Earthquake Recovery Authority. He described how even the City Council was kept in the dark about the recent decision to condemn 400 homes in the suburb of Brooklands.

Mike Coleman reads aloud from his open letter to New Zealand. Members of the audience hold crosses representing the zones where their homes are. Red means condemned, while white zoners are still waiting for clarification.

Mike Coleman symbolically nails his open letter to the cross at CERA's door.